Khosla Ventures
| Company type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Venture capital |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Founder | Vinod Khosla |
| Headquarters | Menlo Park, California , United States |
Area served | Global |
Key people | Keith Rabois (Managing Director, 2024) |
| Products | Venture capital investments |
| Website | khoslaventures |
Khosla Ventures is a privately held American venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. Established in 2004 by entrepreneur Vinod Khosla, the firm managed close to US$15 billion in assets as of 2021.
Focusing primarily on early-stage funding, Khosla Ventures invests across industries such as the Internet, computing, mobile technology, artificial intelligence, financial services, agriculture, healthcare, and clean technology. Its prominent portfolio includes companies like Impossible Foods, Instacart, Affirm, DoorDash, Square, and OpenAI.
History
Vinod Khosla, previously a general partner at Kleiner Perkins, launched Khosla Ventures in 2004. The initial capital came from his own resources without involving institutional investors.
The firm's third fund raised $1 billion aimed at both early and growth-stage ventures, alongside a $300 million seed fund dedicated to higher-risk projects and scientific breakthroughs. By 2013, Khosla Ventures had invested in over 70 clean technology startups, securing a significant foothold in that market. By 2015, it was recognized as one of the top five investors within the space sector.
By September 2017, assets under management had grown to around $5 billion. In October 2021, the firm raised $1.4 billion to back startups from early to late stages, allocating $400 million for seed investments and $1 billion for later-stage opportunities. In January 2022, it secured $557 million for its inaugural opportunity fund.
In 2023, Khosla Ventures ranked first in the "Founder's Choice VC" listings. By November that year, it completed fundraising of $3.1 billion across three funds—the largest venture capital haul of the year—including $1 billion for later-stage enterprises, $500 million for seed-stage investments, and $1.6 billion for its eighth flagship fund. These funds emphasize cutting-edge innovations such as nuclear fusion, humanoid robotics, and artificial intelligence applications transforming healthcare and transportation sectors.
Keith Rabois rejoined as managing director in February 2024. Later that year, the firm raised a $405 million special purpose vehicle dedicated to investing in OpenAI.
Notable investments
Khosla Ventures focuses on sectors including artificial intelligence, climate change solutions, sustainability initiatives, enterprise software, consumer products, fintech innovations, digital health technologies, medical devices, therapeutics, and frontier technologies.
The firm was an early investor in DoorDash (2013) and Instacart (2012), both of which went public in 2020 with valuations of $72 billion and $11 billion respectively. Other consumer-oriented investments include Opendoor.
In enterprise technology, Khosla Ventures supported Okta during its Series B round in 2011 ahead of its 2017 IPO and invested in GitLab in 2015 prior to its 2021 initial public offering valued at $15 billion. Additional enterprise holdings include Cylance, Rubrik, Nutanix, and Replit.
The firm led the Series A financing for Block, Inc. (previously Square) in 2009 before its public debut in 2015. It also participated in Affirm's Series A round in 2013; Affirm went public in 2021 with a valuation of $24 billion. Other fintech investments encompass Stripe, Upstart, and Ramp.
Within sustainability and climate technology sectors, Khosla Ventures took part in Commonwealth Fusion's $115 million Series A funding round in 2019 and was an early backer of QuantumScape, which went public in 2020. Additional sustainability-related investments include Fortera, LanzaTech, and Verdagy.
Healthcare-related investments feature Guardant Health’s Series B round in 2014 before its IPO in 2018 as well as Alivecor (2012), Headspace, Oscar Health, and Sword Health.
Khosla Ventures was the initial venture capital investor in OpenAI beginning in 2018. It also funded Rocket Lab’s Series A round in 2013 prior to its IPO in 2021. Its frontier technology portfolio extends to Glydways, Hermeus, Opentrons, and Varda.
Programs and partnerships
In February 2021, Khosla Ventures introduced initiatives to establish three special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) with the objective of raising $1.2 billion to acquire and privatize publicly traded firms.
One of the SPACs supported by Khosla Ventures enabled Nextdoor's initial public offering in November 2021, assigning the company a valuation of $4.3 billion. By August 2023, however, Nextdoor's market value had dropped to around $810 million. Following this, Khosla Ventures Acquisition Co. declared its dissolution in December 2023.